First Northern-Dwarven War
The First Northern-Dwarven war was a major conflict between the Dwarven Empire, Vroengarde and the Orcs on one side, and the Men of the North, supported by the Order of Dalmaitus, on the other. It was the result of an escalation of the Goblin War, in which the first combat between Dwarven and Northern forces took place. Following alleged Dwarven violations of Northern territorial rights, the Men of the North, declared war on the Dwarven Empire and its allies. Through a series of attacks against these allied factions, the Northmen managed to isolate the Dwarves before the final offensive. The Northmen suffered some casualties in assaulting Mount Josst, but eventually overwhelmed the defenders with the help of the Order of Dalmaitus and, having thus acquired most of the equipment of the Imperial Dwarven Army, would face no more dangerous resistance. Peace negotiations ensued. The war was important from especially a Dwarven viewpoint in that it resulted in the Great Treachery of Crossjon. The former Lord secretly contacted the Men of the North for reasons inexplicable, and gave them the intelligence they needed to find Dwarven storages and predict the actions of the faction. He would later join the Men of the North. Ironically, he would later leave this faction as well - albeit not under the same circumstances - eventually ending up in Palamaine. Prelude The Goblin War had left the Dwarven Empire low on manpower and with a resource shortage, though the reason for the latter could also be explained by the massive building projects that had exhausted the diamond supply of the faction. Furthermore, the Men of the North had joined on the Goblin side - this was the direct escalation of the conflict that started the First Northern-Dwarven War, even though there was a short armistice between the two factions following the dissolution of the Goblin Tribes of the Mountains. The Dwarven Empire hoarded as many allies it could to its cause, with war appearing imminent. This bloc of factions included the Orcs and Vroengarde. In response, The Triad was formed as an alliance between the Order, The Brotherhood and the Men of the North. Josst, then Chancellor of the Dwarven Empire after Gunny's loss by a majority of votes in the 2nd Imperial Elections, resigned from his position when the diplomatic situation turned from bad to worse, and handed over all powers to Emperor Aanker. Aanker, realizing that the armistice would not hold, contacted the Brotherhood, the most potent member of the Triad, and asked them for terms under which they would not join in the coming war. The Brotherhood declared that their pact with the Men of the North was firmly defensive in nature, but that they would attack if the Dwarven Empire sought to preemptively strike at the Northmen. This was of some importance to the outcome of the war, since it negated the Dwarves the vital first attack, instead forcing them to wait for whenever the Northerners would assault their lands. Although there is lacking clarity on the matter, it appears as if Josst, acting outside Imperial mandate, singlehandedly caused some damages to the farms of the Men of the North. It was the tipping point of an already tense diplomatic situation, thus giving the Northeners their Cassus Belli. Skirmishing in Solgrundir On the morning of the 27th, Dan (Nhy) and Mitch were scouting the area around Solgrundir as they noticed lava that wasn't present a few minutes before. After running around the mountain, and just as they were about to give up on the search, Patrick appeared, along with a Magicman. a short shoot-out lead to Mitch scoring a hit on Magicman and Dan finishing him after scoring 2 more shots, then as they hit Pat, he started to flee. Emboldened by his enemy's retreat, Dan jumped right off the mountain and gave chase to the Northman after drinking a speed potion, eventually catching up to him and killing him when he finally decided stand and fight. Upon returning back to the mountain the Dwarves discovered Magicman shooting arrows. Patrick was then spotted again inside the Dwarven city, running around the now empty dwarven farms, eventually eluding the Dwarven patrol and finding refuge to log off. After a while, Magicman logged back in to find himself spawning above the mountain and not below it. So after shouting "KNAI" to the winds, Dan chased him and in a spartan way pushed the mercenary off of the mountain to his death. Northern Attacks on Dwarven Allies Early in the morning, the Men of the North attacked the Orcs on the island of Orcenstone. Being a newly formed faction with few resources, they could offer little in the way of resistance, and were defeated. The faction would later disband. This attack was followed by another on Vroengarde, which, due to the complete surprise inflicted upon them, were also defeated. With great material and personal losses, they were forced to surrender. War Reaches the Imperial Homelands With the allies of the Dwarven Empire defeated, the war then turned south, focusing on the Imperial Homelands of the Dwarves. Battle of Mount Josst The penultimate engagement of the war was the Battle of Mount Josst. Prior to the full-scale initiation of the war, the Dwarves had built their own mountain - Mount Josst (Mount Josst would later be formed through powerful magicks into the mountain of Solgarund, in which the city Solgrundir is nowadays found) - overlooking the depths of Solgrundir, and were thus intent on holding this high ground from the enemy. Initially, the Northmen were held at bay with some casualties inflicted on them by the powerful bow of Commander Mitch. Keeping up the offensive, however, they eventually managed to climb up and reach the defenders in close combat where Order Knight Skivvies managed to throw several enemies to the abyss before falling there himself. It was then that the equipment advantage held by the northerners proved entirely decisive. Even though the battle had turned back and forth for some time, it ended in a victory for the Men of the North, who, having acquired virtually all of the dwarven military equipment of importance, would no longer face significant resistance. Military Acquisition of Power and Internal Crisis The Dwarven Empire began peace negotiations with the Men of the North, but Commander Mitch, not wanting to admit defeat built on the argument that the funding accessible to the dwarves would be enough to eventually emerge victorious in terms of territorial conquests, seized power as military dictator of the faction. At the same time, however, posts made by Abbews on the forums indicated that a traitor was working within the Dwarven Empire. Indeed, dwarven suspicions were confirmed when Aanker claimed that these posts were fraudulent, to which Abbews replied with full extracts from the secret proceedings of the Council of Lords. In the first, unedited post, Crossjon's role as the traitor was accidentally revealed, but the dwarves, suspecting that this was too great a blunder to be true, dismissed it as an attempt to make them turn on someone who had appeared to be a loyal faction member since the forming of the Dwarven Empire in 2010. Eventually, through a series of investigative efforts made by the Council of Lords, Crossjon admitted to treachery. He was swiftly banned from the Dwarven Empire, and a silent grudge was declared upon him. Unfortunately for the dwarves, however, the efforts to locate the traitor had included the alienation of Josstwc and a fake civil war, which prompted immediate moderator action to end the war as swiftly as possible. The dwarves admitted defeat. Diplomatic Incidents In the closing stages of the war, a number of diplomatic incidents occured that ultimately had little effect upon the war itself, but caused some confusion on the server. Most prominently, two dwarves attacked Vroengarde warriors, causing a rupture in the alliance between the two factions and leaving the Dwarven Empire alone for the remainder of the war. Aftermath The Dwarven Empire was forced, through treaty, to pay 50 diamonds to the Men of the North. Most of these were surrendered by Lord Romanus III. The Orcs were disbanded, leading to the spread of anti-northman sentiment on the server (Ynentje, their leader, was again the victim of northern aggression in a brief war against the Monks of Mithras, which caused general server displeasure with the Northmen). Vroengarde was severely weakened by the war, and some of the events leading up to its disbandment may partly have been the result of the outcome of this conflict. Political changes occured in the Dwarven Empire. Mitch's dictatorship ended, and the Council of Lords assumed full power until a new Chancellor could be appointed under the rewritten constitution. The defeat in the First Northern-Dwarven War prompted the remaining members of the Council of Lords to gather all experience obtained from the war, in a highly secret fashion, to later be fully able to exact revenge upon the Northmen when the time was deemed appropriate. Partly under the guise of their mountain construction project, and "recovering" from the war, the Dwarven Empire rearmed, careful not to reveal its plans or its continued active alignment firmly against the Men of the North. Through the rearming, the Dwarven Empire would be adequatly equipped when an opportunity for vengeance arose in the First Coalition War. The Triad was discontinued shortly after the war. It had served its purpose, and with the counteralliance against it rendered void, there was no reason for it to be upheld. The signatory nations would eventually become part of the "Big Four". The Men of the North exited the war having made considerable gains in prestige, as, different from most of their wars, the Northmen had curbed the Dwarven Empire's expansionist policy which had seen it annex the Goblin lands during the Goblin War. Their ally the Order of Dalmaitus, never officially at war but having sent men to the front, would gain much experience from this conflict, however, eventually the alliance sour up due to the inherent contradiction in both of the factions' ideals. The Order of Dalmaitus would end up temporarily allying the Dwarven Empire for the Second and Third conflicts between the Dwarves and the Northmen.